Fact and Fiction

100-Word Challenge – Day 14

Watch any movie or TV show on mute, and write what you think they might be saying. If it’s a serious work, be lighthearted, and if its a comedy, be serious. Consider why you characterized certain people as bad or good, funny or unfunny.

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I don’t recall who or when, but sometime in my misty past a boy stated he didn’t care for television was asked why. “The pictures aren’t good enough,” he said. I didn’t understand his response until I read further into the text accompanying his statement. He was comparing a director’s interpretation of a scene with those a novelist providing. Perhaps he was wise beyond his years. With the passage of time I’ve come to agree with him. And I’ve gotten still more selective. I’ve stopped watching it.

I should explain that last sentence. The doctor’s office has a TV in his waiting room. Though I don’t care for the programming that is being broadcast, if I forget my Kindle reader there is little else to do.

And when we finish our grocery shopping – twice each week – we often stop by McDonald’s for a cup of senior coffee before heading home. The Food Channel is nearly always on, broadcasting Chopped, Diners,Drive ins, and Dives, or some lady who never stops smiling. Any Food Channel programming is just as interesting with or without audio. Body language tells the story.

When the kids were at home the television was on much of the day. Sesame Street taught me how to get a long board through a narrow doorway. MASH taught me how to laugh at other people’s misfortunes. Taxi was different. Saturday morning cartoons were different from the cartoons I saw in the movie theaters as a kid. And Godzilla. How did that producer ever find someone to sponsor that movie?
My paternal grandparents didn’t own a television. They didn’t see the advantages of it. When I was sixteen and a newly licensed driver my grandmother had me drive her to visit her sister some thirty miles from the farm. We stayed longer than planned, I suppose, because when it came mealtime Aunt Grace brought out TV trays and we dined while watching the network news. My grandmother didn’t open her head while there, but she had much to say about it to my grandfather after she returned home. She was insulted and she never stopped talking about it.

How do I get along without television? I read. I write. And when my eyes have seen all the words they can handle I log onto the Internet and listen to audio books or radio programs of yesteryear.

No one is telling me what I should think. I feel I am in control of my life.